Explosive Footage: Toilet Paper Blaze Under Scrutiny in Southern California Warehouse Inferno Investigation

ONTARIO, Calif. — Authorities are currently analyzing a social media video as part of their ongoing probe into a significant warehouse fire that erupted early Tuesday morning in Ontario, California.

Arson investigators have noted that the video seems to capture scenes of toilet paper being ignited inside the warehouse, with an individual repeatedly voicing frustration over insufficient wages.

In the video, the person can be heard saying, “If you’re not going to pay us enough to (expletive) live or afford to live, at least pay us enough not to do this.”

Police have apprehended 29-year-old Chamel Abdul-Karim, charging him with felony arson. Officials report that Abdul-Karim was employed at the Kimberly-Clark Distribution Center through a third-party agency at the time of the incident. While investigators are examining the video, they have yet to confirm Abdul-Karim as the individual depicted in the footage.

A colleague of the suspect mentioned to reporters that he had encountered Abdul-Karim just moments before the blaze began and initially had no reason to suspect his involvement.

“There was no suspicion that it was him, actually he was missing. So everyone was trying to find him. Everyone was blaming the robots at first. We were almost 100% sure it was the robots until the action in the video of course,” said Alex Montero of San Bernardino.

The fire, which erupted shortly after 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, destroyed the more than one-million-square-foot facility. Firefighters were able to contain the blaze to the building, and no injuries were reported. The warehouse was filled with paper products from familiar brands like Kleenex to Huggies diapers.

Fire officials said arson was suspected almost immediately because of how quickly the fire spread inside the facility. Ontario Fire Department Chief Mike Gerken described the behavior of the fire as unusual.

“Definitely it was an uncharacteristic fire, just the fire behavior that they were experiencing inside and the rapid spread of that fire for such a large building, to move that quickly – it definitely pushed our firefighters into that defensive operation, and that was one indication that it could possibly be arson in nature,” Gerken said.

In a final clip of the video, a corridor of the warehouse appears to be engulfed in flames as the person recording states, “There goes your inventory.”